A suicide bomber drove a vehicle laden with explosives into a police academy in eastern Algeria on Tuesday, killing at least 43 people in one of the deadliest attacks in the north African country for years.

Witnesses said the assailant rammed his car into a group of prospective recruits as they queued to sign up for classes at the paramilitary gendarmerie school in Boumerdes province. The interior ministry said 42 of those killed were civilians, while the other victim was a gendarme. At least 38 people were injured, it said.